Crystal violet is not merely a cosmetic nuisance. The triarylmethane dye, widely used in textile printing, paper production, and even as a biological stain, is toxic to aquatic life and suspected of harmful effects in humans, which is why researchers worldwide are racing to find cheap, sustainable ways to capture it before it reaches rivers and groundwater. Adsorption, the process by which dye molecules cling to the surface of a solid material, remains one of the most practical removal strategies, but the performance of any adsorbent depends heavily on how much accessible surface it offers.

That is where electrospinning comes in. The technique applies a high voltage to a droplet of polymer solution, stretching it into a whip-like jet that whips through the air, solvent evaporating along the way, until it lands as fibers with diameters measured in nanometers. Because these fibers pack enormous surface area and high porosity into a small mass of material, they expose a vast number of adsorption sites to the surrounding water. The Iranian team exploited this by blending polyvinyl alcohol, a water-friendly synthetic polymer, with gum arabic, a natural exudate from acacia trees prized for its biocompatibility and abundance of functional groups.

The twist in this study is the addition of carbon dots, nanoscale carbon-based particles that have attracted enormous interest for their fluorescence, low toxicity, and ease of green synthesis. Embedded within the electrospun nanofiber matrix, the carbon dots contribute additional interaction sites and functional chemistry that boost the composite’s ability to bind positively charged crystal violet molecules. The researchers prepared the composite solution and spun it directly into the final adsorbent, avoiding harsh chemicals and keeping the entire fabrication route aligned with green chemistry principles.

To confirm that the material was what they intended, the authors subjected it to a battery of characterization techniques. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy mapped the chemical bonds and functional groups present in the fibers, verifying that the polymer, gum, and carbon dot components were integrated. X-ray diffraction probed the internal structure, while scanning electron microscopy revealed the fibrous morphology, showing the continuous, porous network that gives the material its high surface area. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the elemental composition, and transmission electron microscopy allowed the team to visualize the nanoscale architecture, including the distribution of carbon dots within the fibers.

With the adsorbent in hand, the group systematically tested how well it captured crystal violet from water and, just as importantly, how the process worked. Adsorption kinetics were evaluated using three classical models: pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion. The data aligned best with the pseudo-second-order model, a result with real mechanistic meaning, since it indicates that the rate-limiting step involves chemical interactions, such as electron sharing or electrostatic attraction, between the dye molecules and the binding sites on the fiber surface, rather than simple physical deposition.

The equilibrium behavior told a complementary story. When the team fitted their adsorption data to the Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm models, the Langmuir model provided the best description. That outcome implies that crystal violet molecules occupy a finite set of energetically equivalent sites on the nanofiber surface, forming at most a single molecular layer, and that once a site is filled it can no longer accept another dye molecule. Such monolayer adsorption on a uniform surface is exactly what one hopes for in a well-behaved, predictable adsorbent, making it easier to design treatment systems around the material.

Thermodynamic analysis added further insight into the driving forces at play. The results showed that the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic, meaning it proceeds willingly at the tested conditions and releases heat as the dye binds. An exothermic signature typically points to physical and electrostatic interactions dominating the uptake and suggests that lower temperatures favor adsorption, information that matters when engineers consider real-world wastewater streams whose temperatures vary with season and location.

Perhaps the most encouraging finding for practical deployment came from the reusability tests. Many promising adsorbents falter in regeneration, losing capacity after a handful of cycles as their binding sites clog or their structure degrades. The carbon dot-embedded PVA/gum arabic nanofibers, by contrast, demonstrated high recoverability with no considerable loss in adsorption performance over six consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles. That durability addresses one of the biggest economic hurdles for nanomaterial-based water treatment, since a sorbent that must be replaced after every use quickly becomes prohibitively expensive.

The study sits within a broader surge of interest in biopolymer-based electrospun adsorbents, from gum-based fibers explored for food packaging to hydrogels and aerogels built from chitosan, alginate, and cellulose for capturing dyes, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals. What distinguishes this work is the combination of three benign ingredients, a scalable fiber fabrication method, and rigorous kinetic, isotherm, and thermodynamic modeling that together demonstrate a coherent, sustainable package. As textile industries in water-stressed regions face tightening discharge rules, materials like these green nanofibers could offer a route to cleaner effluent that does not trade one environmental problem for another, turning tree sap, a common polymer, and carbon nanodots into an effective filter for one of the dye industry’s most persistent pollutants.

Subject of Research: Green carbon dot-embedded electrospun PVA/gum arabic nanofibers for adsorptive removal of crystal violet dye from water

Article Title: Green carbon dot–embedded Electrospun PVA/gum arabic nanofibers for efficient crystal violet removal from aqueous media

Article References: Safaei, A., Giyahban, F., & Ebrahimzadeh, H. (2026). Green carbon dot–embedded Electrospun PVA/gum arabic nanofibers for efficient crystal violet removal from aqueous media. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 33(30), 15784-15798. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-026-38234-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s11356-026-38234-5

Keywords: carbon dots, electrospun nanofibers, gum arabic, polyvinyl alcohol, crystal violet, dye removal, adsorption, wastewater treatment, Langmuir isotherm, pseudo-second-order kinetics, green adsorbent, water purification

The biology of a stalled wound is strikingly different from that of a healthy one. Normal healing proceeds through four coordinated stages: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling, orchestrated by a cast of cells and growth factors. Chronic wounds, particularly diabetic foot ulcers, are trapped in a hostile microenvironment defined by elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS), persistent bacterial biofilms, hypoxia, and an overabundance of matrix metalloproteinases that chew through the extracellular matrix. In diabetes, hyperglycemia drives the formation of advanced glycation end-products, which fuel chronic inflammation and further oxidative stress. Infections by Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa deepen the problem, colonizing tissue, prolonging inflammation, and impairing the clotting and angiogenesis processes the wound needs to recover.

Conventional care has not kept pace with this complexity. Debridement, the surgical or enzymatic removal of dead tissue, remains the gold standard for cleaning the wound bed, but it is painful, requires skilled surgeons, and does nothing to correct the underlying biochemistry. Autologous skin grafts still deliver the best cosmetic and functional outcomes, yet donor sites are limited, and even engineered skin substitutes fall short of a complete replacement. Topical growth factors and antimicrobials help, but wound exudates rapidly degrade free drugs. The review’s central argument is that advanced materials must do more than cover a wound: they must actively modulate the microenvironment, scavenging excess ROS, delivering growth factors intact, and dismantling biofilms.

Natural polymers form the backbone of many next-generation dressings precisely because they speak the body’s language. Collagen, roughly 30 percent of animal protein, provides a triple-helical scaffold that supports cell attachment, induces coagulation, and releases bioactive peptides with immunomodulatory, antibacterial, and antioxidative activity. Silk fibroin from the Bombyx mori silkworm offers antimicrobial properties, moisture retention, gas exchange, and negligible immunogenicity. Keratin, long overlooked as a therapy, has recently attracted attention: keratin 17 surges at wound margins after injury, and mice lacking it heal poorly, while keratin-derived dressings accelerated epithelialization in pig models. Alginate from brown seaweed absorbs exudates and keeps the wound moist, and hyaluronic acid, a glycosaminoglycan of the extracellular matrix, actively promotes angiogenesis, though it must be blended with other macromolecules for mechanical strength.

Synthetic and hybrid systems address the weaknesses of natural polymers, which suffer from batch-to-batch variability and poor mechanical consistency. Polyurethane films, hydrogels, foams, and hydrocolloids can be engineered with reproducible properties, and the review highlights work showing polyurethane dressings producing thinner scabs and earlier vascularized granulation tissue than a commercial control. The authors argue that hybrid composite scaffolds combining natural bioactivity with synthetic reliability represent the optimal strategy for clinical translation, a theme that recurs throughout their functional classification of biomaterial platforms.

The most technically rich section of the review concerns nanoparticles themselves. Silver nanomaterials, already commercialized in dressings such as Acticoat, kill bacteria by deactivating enzymes, modifying thiol groups on cysteine residues, and generating ROS; proteomic studies show they disable outer-membrane proteins in E. coli and block proton transfer, starving cells of ATP. Zinc oxide nanoparticles exploit size-dependent effects, entering bacterial cells through nanometer-scale surface pores and producing hydrogen peroxide and ROS that also stimulate fibroblast growth. Gold nanoparticles, particularly when paired with light stimulation or antioxidants like epigallocatechin gallate, enhanced keratinocyte and fibroblast proliferation and angiogenic signaling in animal studies. Copper nanoparticles, notably two-and-a-half to six times less toxic than copper salts, address the trace-metal deficits that slow healing.

Emerging materials aim directly at the diabetic wound’s oxidative chaos. Cerium oxide nanoparticles mimic the enzymes superoxide dismutase and catalase, neutralizing ROS while activating the PI3K/Akt and Wnt/beta-catenin pathways that drive endothelial cell proliferation and new blood vessel formation. When conjugated with microRNA-146a or embedded in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels, they reduce inflammation and accelerate closure without antibiotics. Silica nanoparticles release silicic acid that promotes fibroblast migration, and mesoporous versions serve as high-capacity drug carriers. Self-assembling peptide nanostructures offer cytocompatible, non-immunogenic scaffolds that can be tailored with cell-adhesion epitopes. Carbon-based materials round out the arsenal: fullerenes scavenge reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, graphene oxide encourages keratinocyte migration and angiogenesis, and carbon nanotubes composited with chitosan enhanced collagen deposition in vivo.

Delivery architecture matters as much as the therapeutic cargo. Polymeric nanoparticles made of PLGA protect drugs from wound proteases and release them in a sustained fashion; LL37-loaded PLGA particles promoted cell migration and granulation in full-thickness wound models. Liposomes and niosomes carry both hydrophilic and lipophilic agents, and a silk-fibroin-cored liposome preserved basic fibroblast growth factor in wound secretions while accelerating angiogenesis. Solid lipid nanoparticles and nanostructured lipid carriers achieved high encapsulation efficiency and superior stability, delivering recombinant human EGF to diabetic mice with marked improvements in re-epithelialization. Electrospun nanofibers mimic the extracellular matrix’s topography, coaxial variants sustaining drug release for up to 30 days, while nanohydrogels absorb exudate, admit oxygen, and can be loaded with stimuli-sensitive cargo.

The next generation of dressings is designed to think. pH-responsive nanofibers signal and treat infection, since chronic and infected wounds trend alkaline. Thermoresponsive meshes with biodegradable metallic heaters release drugs on demand, enzyme-responsive systems degrade in the presence of overexpressed matrix metalloproteinases or bacterial lipases, and ROS-cleavable hydrogels unload anti-inflammatory payloads exactly where oxidative stress reigns. The review frames this as a shift from passive, one-size-fits-all coverage toward personalized, dynamic therapy, though it cautions that manufacturing complexity and sensor stability in the harsh wound bed remain significant hurdles.

The translational roadmap is candid about where each technology stands. Drug-loaded dressings built on FDA-approved polymers with established metals like silver and zinc oxide, plus lipid nanoparticles, are closest to the clinic because regulatory pathways already exist. Cerium oxide platforms and smart stimuli-responsive hydrogels, despite immense promise for diabetic wounds, still need extensive long-term toxicity and biodistribution data, since silver accumulation illustrates the risks of established materials. The authors call for rigorous nanotoxicology monitoring, scalable manufacturing including 3D and 4D bioprinting of nanocomposite scaffolds, and point-of-care diagnostics that analyze wound exudate to prescribe multifunctional dressings matched to each patient’s microenvironment. If those pieces come together, the stubborn ulcers that medicine has managed for decades may finally be engineered to heal.

Subject of Research: Nano-architected biomaterials and smart drug delivery systems for chronic and diabetic wound healing

Article Title: Nano-architectures in wound healing: Smart delivery systems, mechanistic insights, and translational roadmap

Article References: Nano-architectures in wound healing: Smart delivery systems, mechanistic insights, and translational roadmap. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rechem.2026.103803

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1016/j.rechem.2026.103803

Keywords: nanotechnology, wound healing, diabetic foot ulcers, nanoparticles, cerium oxide, silver nanoparticles, hydrogels, drug delivery, electrospun nanofibers, ROS scavenging, biomaterials, smart dressings

The central argument of the review is that modern wound care needs materials that do more than cover. Biomaterial-based polymeric patches are designed to combine three functions in a single platform: structural support for fragile new tissue, controlled delivery of therapeutic agents, and direct regenerative activity. Achieving that combination requires careful attention to a set of design determinants that the authors lay out systematically. Biocompatibility ensures the material does not provoke an immune attack; biodegradability allows the patch to be absorbed as the wound heals rather than requiring painful removal; mechanical integrity keeps the patch intact under the stresses of movement; and the polymer’s origin, whether natural or synthetic, shapes degradation rates, cell interactions, and regulatory pathways. Increasingly, researchers are also incorporating bioactive secondary metabolites, plant-derived compounds and other natural molecules with documented anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and pro-regenerative effects, to give the patch genuine pharmacological punch.

Among the most versatile platforms are hydrogels, three-dimensional polymer networks that can hold large quantities of water while remaining soft and tissue-like. Hydrogels maintain the moist environment that wound healing requires, and their crosslinked structure can be tuned to release drugs over hours or days. The review highlights natural polymer hydrogels based on alginate, chitosan, and carboxymethyl cellulose, which have shown anti-inflammatory and healing-accelerating effects in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Photo-crosslinkable gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels allow researchers to pattern the material with light, creating scaffolds that mimic the extracellular matrix. Injectable hydrogel formulations are pushing further, offering targeted control of oxidative stress, one of the key biochemical culprits that keeps diabetic wounds locked in a chronic, non-healing state. Conductive hydrogel patches add yet another dimension, using bioelectric stimulation to encourage cell migration and regeneration while doubling as wearable sensors.

Electrospun nanofiber scaffolds represent a second major architectural family. By drawing polymer solutions through an electric field, manufacturers can produce mats of fibers with diameters in the nanometer range, closely resembling the fibrous architecture of the natural extracellular matrix. This biomimetic topology encourages cells to attach, proliferate, and migrate across the wound bed. The review cites work on polycaprolactone-zinc scaffolds coated with fibroblast-derived extracellular matrix, which enhanced cell proliferation, migration, and fibroblast differentiation, and on radially oriented berberine-loaded PHBV nanofiber dressings designed to accelerate diabetic wound closure. Electrospun dressings loaded with carbon quantum dots and citrate have demonstrated improved antibacterial efficiency, and the technology has begun to appear in real-world clinical evaluation, with commercial systems such as Spincare being assessed for practical wound coverage.

Microneedle arrays are perhaps the most visually striking of the new architectures. These patches studded with microscopic needles, often tens to hundreds of micrometers tall, can painlessly penetrate the tough, dead surface layer of a chronic wound and deposit drugs, growth factors, or biomolecules directly into viable tissue below. The review describes bioinspired wearable polymer microneedle patches developed specifically for diabetic wound therapy, as well as multifunctional designs such as a kangfuxin-chitosan-fucoidan complex patch that enabled full-thickness wound healing in preclinical models, and ROS-scavenging microneedle patches that mop up the reactive oxygen species implicated in chronic inflammation. Because microneedles can be engineered from dissolving or biodegradable polymers, they can leave no sharps waste and release their payload as they dissolve, combining delivery, mechanical debridement of the wound surface, and safety in one device.

Multilayered composite dressings take a different approach to the same problem: rather than one material doing everything, they assign each layer a job. A typical bilayer or trilayer patch might feature a tough, bacteria-blocking outer film, a middle layer that stores and slowly releases therapeutics, and a soft, adhesive inner layer that conforms to the wound. The review points to examples including gelatin-chitosan bilayer patches loaded with medicinal plant extracts, tri-layer dressings combining zinc oxide nanoparticles with insulin-like growth factor 1 for full-thickness skin injuries, and pollen-integrated hydrogel patches with hierarchical structures that release active compounds in a spatio-temporally controlled fashion. This architectural sophistication mirrors the layered structure of skin itself and allows formulators to reconcile requirements, such as moisture retention and mechanical strength, that would otherwise conflict within a single material.

The most futuristic entries in the review are the smart, responsive patches that merge wound care with diagnostics. Hydrogel-based electronic-skin patches have been demonstrated that both accelerate healing and monitor the state of the wound in real time. Conducting polymer arrays with multiplex sensing and drug-delivery capabilities form the basis of next-generation smart bandages, while a negative-pressure smart patch has been reported that can both sense wound conditions and apply therapy on demand. Wearable platforms built on hydrogels are being designed to track biomarkers such as pH, temperature, uric acid, and moisture, parameters that correlate with infection and healing progress, and to trigger therapeutic release only when needed. The authors note that artificial intelligence is beginning to enter this space, with machine-learning approaches proposed for interpreting sensor data and personalizing treatment, turning the humble dressing into a closed-loop therapeutic system.

Underpinning all of these architectures is a growing appreciation of wound biology. The review situates material design within the cellular choreography of repair: the inflammatory phase dominated by macrophages whose plasticity determines whether healing proceeds or stalls, the proliferative phase in which fibroblasts lay down new matrix and new blood vessels form, and the remodeling phase that determines final scar quality. In diabetic and chronic wounds, elevated oxidative stress, persistent infection, and dysregulated inflammation derail this sequence. Bioactive metabolites from plants, marine peptides, and even microbial sources are being explored as natural modulators that can nudge the wound environment back toward regeneration, and polymer chemists are learning to embed these molecules without destroying their activity.

Yet the review’s most sobering contribution is its assessment of translation. Despite an impressive laboratory literature, the number of advanced polymeric patches that have reached routine clinical use remains small. The authors identify a cluster of recurring barriers: manufacturing scalability, since processes like electrospinning and microneedle molding are difficult to reproduce at industrial scale with consistent quality; product standardization, because natural polymers vary batch to batch; regulatory approval pathways that were not designed for combination products blending drug, device, and biological functions; cost-effectiveness in health systems already strained by chronic wound care; and, above all, the scarcity of large-scale clinical validation. Registered clinical trials of advanced patches, including nitric oxide-releasing patches for diabetic foot ulcers and hemostatic patches for surgery, exist but remain limited in number and scope relative to the volume of preclinical publications. The review also flags the poor quality of many animal studies and calls for better standardized reporting, citing newly proposed guidelines for wound-healing research.

The overall picture that emerges is of a field at an inflection point. The material science has arguably outpaced the clinical science: researchers can now build patches that sense, deliver, stimulate, and regenerate, but the pathway from elegant prototype to approved, affordable, widely available product remains bottlenecked by economics, regulation, and evidence. By integrating advances in material design with an honest appraisal of translational and clinical considerations, Nandi and colleagues offer a framework intended to help the next generation of patches cross that gap. For the millions of patients whose wounds will not heal, the promise is real, but so, the review makes clear, is the distance still to travel.

Subject of Research: Bioactive polymeric patches and advanced dressing architectures for chronic wound healing and their translational challenges

Article Title: Next-generation bioactive polymeric patches for chronic wound healing: from advanced architectures to translational challenges

Article References: Nandi, A., Ahmed, R. K., & Chakrabarti, S. (2026). Next-generation bioactive polymeric patches for chronic wound healing: from advanced architectures to translational challenges. Polymer Bulletin, 83(12), Article 643. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-026-06697-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s00289-026-06697-8

Keywords: chronic wounds, wound healing, biomaterials, hydrogels, electrospun nanofibers, microneedles, smart dressings, drug delivery, tissue regeneration, polymers, diabetic ulcers, clinical translation

The platform was created using electrospinning, a technique in which a polymer solution is subjected to a high electric field and drawn into continuous fibers that collect as a soft, porous mat. The researchers, led by Divya Mathew, Benny Thomas, Sudheep Nagamangalam and Radhakrishnan Edayileveettil Krishnankutty, systematically optimized the polymer concentration, the amount of drug loaded into the spinning solution, and the electrospinning parameters themselves. The goal was to produce fibers that were uniform and free of the bead-like defects that plague poorly tuned electrospinning. Their optimized mats consisted of bead-free poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers with an average diameter of roughly 250 nanometers, fine enough to create an enormous surface area for contact with infected tissue while remaining robust enough to handle.

One of the most striking numbers in the study is the entrapment efficiency: the fibers captured 88.6 percent of the amphotericin B, give or take about two percent. That matters because amphotericin B is both expensive and toxic, and any drug that leaks out or fails to incorporate into the carrier is wasted payload that could cause collateral damage. To understand how the drug was held within the polymer, the team turned to Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, which revealed molecular-level interactions between amphotericin B and the poly(vinyl alcohol) matrix through hydrogen bonding. Transmission Electron Microscopy confirmed that the drug was dispersed homogeneously throughout the fiber network rather than clumped into crystals, a detail that helps explain the smooth, predictable release behavior that followed.

The physical character of the mats proved equally important to their function. The optimized fibers showed improved mechanical strength, a moderate hydrophilicity reflected in a water contact angle of about 50 degrees, and an excellent balance between swelling and moisture retention. In practical terms, when the mat is placed on moist skin or mucosal tissue, it hydrates gradually without dissolving too quickly or drying out, maintaining the conditions needed for controlled drug diffusion over an extended period. The researchers also tracked how the material degrades, finding a gradual weight loss of 28.6 percent after fourteen days. That slow biodegradation profile means the mat remains structurally functional throughout the treatment window rather than falling apart prematurely.

To quantify how the drug escapes the matrix, the team fitted their release data to established mathematical models of drug diffusion. The kinetics matched the Korsmeyer–Peppas and Peppas–Sahlin models best, with coefficients of determination above 0.98. This fit pointed to a non-Fickian diffusion mechanism, meaning drug release is governed not simply by molecular diffusion through the polymer but by a combination of diffusion and the relaxation of the polymer chains themselves as they swell. For a topical delivery system, that coupling is advantageous: it smooths out the release profile, avoiding the sharp burst of drug that can irritate tissue and instead providing the sustained exposure needed to suppress fungal regrowth between applications.

Safety was assessed with a battery of cytocompatibility and blood-contacting assays. Three different human cell lines—normal human dermal fibroblasts, keratinocytes of the HaCaT line, and HEK 293 cells—all maintained viability above 80 percent when exposed to the material, and hemolysis testing showed red blood cell rupture remained below five percent. Those thresholds are meaningful benchmarks in biomaterials research, suggesting the mats would not damage the skin cells they are meant to protect nor harm blood components if used on wound beds. For a drug as harsh as amphotericin B, whose systemic use is shadowed by nephrotoxicity, confining it to a local, well-tolerated depot is a strategy aimed squarely at keeping the drug’s benefits while leaving its systemic toxicity behind.

The antifungal performance was tested against three clinically relevant organisms: Candida albicans, the yeast responsible for most mucocutaneous candidiasis, and two filamentous fungi, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. The mats produced sustained yet potent inhibition of all three. Just as importantly, the researchers evaluated activity against biofilms—the organized microbial communities encased in a protective extracellular matrix that make infections on catheters, wounds, and mucosal surfaces so difficult to eradicate. Biofilm cells are famously tolerant of antifungals that readily kill their free-floating planktonic counterparts. The amphotericin B-loaded mats cut the metabolic activity and biomass of fungal biofilms by roughly 60 percent compared with untreated controls, a substantial reduction that suggests the platform could help break the cycle of persistent, treatment-resistant surface infections.

The broader significance of the work lies in how it reframes an old drug for a persistent clinical problem. Amphotericin B has been in use for some sixty years, and while lipid formulations such as AmBisome have reduced its toxicity for systemic treatment, options for localized delivery to skin, mucosa, and wounds remain limited. Nanofiber mats offer a distinctive combination of properties for that niche: they conform to irregular surfaces, their porosity supports moisture balance, and their structure can be tuned to control release kinetics. Because poly(vinyl alcohol) is water-soluble, biocompatible, and already familiar in biomedical applications such as wound dressings, the barrier to translating the platform is arguably lower than for more exotic carrier chemistries.

The authors suggest the system is a promising localized antifungal delivery strategy for mucocutaneous and wound-associated infections, offering prolonged drug release, enhanced biocompatibility, and reduced toxicity in a single material. Much work remains before such a mat could reach patients—scale-up of electrospinning, in vivo efficacy studies, and regulatory evaluation all lie ahead. But the study demonstrates, with careful characterization at every step, that a humble polymer spun into nanofibers can tame one of medicine’s most toxic antifungals and turn it into a steady, localized weapon against the fungi and biofilms that resist conventional treatment. In an era of rising antifungal resistance, giving established drugs new delivery formats may be one of the most practical paths forward.

Subject of Research: Electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofiber mats for sustained topical delivery of amphotericin B with enhanced antifungal and antibiofilm efficacy

Article Title: Electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofiber mats as a biocompatible platform for sustained topical delivery of Amphotericin B with enhanced antifungal and antibiofilm efficacy

Article References: Mathew, D., Thomas, B., Nagamangalam, S., & Krishnankutty, R. E. (2026). Electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofiber mats as a biocompatible platform for sustained topical delivery of Amphotericin B with enhanced antifungal and antibiofilm efficacy. Polymer Bulletin, 83(11), Article 638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-026-06681-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s00289-026-06681-2

Keywords: Amphotericin B, poly(vinyl alcohol), electrospun nanofibers, sustained drug release, antifungal, antibiofilm, Candida albicans, Aspergillus, biocompatibility, drug delivery, wound infections, Korsmeyer–Peppas